We at The Philadelphia Jewish Voice continuously strive for excellence. In order to improve your experience reading our publication, reach more readers and have a greater impact, we are in the process of upgrading our website. We need to raise $1,250 in order to reach our goal to make this possible. Please support us in this endeavor. No amount is too small, and every dollar raised will help us reach this very achievable goal. I hope that you will enjoy all our upcoming improvements.
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Eric Smolen, Treasurer The Philadelphia Jewish Voice 327 Pembroke Road Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004
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Philadelphia Jewish Voice's board members celebrate being recognized with Second Place for Online Presence in the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association's 2011 Newspaper of the Year Competition.
Dear Readers,
All of us at The Philadelphia Jewish Voice wish you a happy and prosperous new year. It has been our pleasure to share our original content and creativity with you over the course of this past year. We are unpaid volunteers, who do this work because we love it.
Sometimes — usually after the New York Times deigns to publish a letter of mine on behalf of Agudath Israel of America — I'm asked how one "gets a letter" published in a (rightly or wrongly) respected periodical.
Well, the first step is to become the spokesperson for a national organization.
Just joking. It may help a letter's chances for publication if it is signed by an organizational representative. But it can also hurt them. In any event, most published letters are from individuals writing as such.
One doesn't, however, "get a letter" published. All one can do is submit a good candidate, one with a chance of striking the fancy of a letters editor. Major publications can receive hundreds of letters a day, from which to choose a handful. There are no shortcuts here (unless the editor is one's brother-in-law). But "Rabbi Shafran's How-To Guide" for writing a letter to the editor, below, might be helpful.
Rabbi Shafran's eight pieces of advice follow the jump.
College students threatened with doubled school-loan interest rates can thank a stale, anachronistic political process on Capitol Hill that makes as much sense as the antics on "Seinfeld."
In fact, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid must have modeled his negotiating skills on Seinfeld pal George Costanza when he allowed Republicans to retain their filibuster power, which they abuse at nearly every opportunity, according to the new e-book Amending America: To Change Policy, Change the System. This close look at our governing system is written by Philadelphia Jewish Voice writer Bruce S. Ticker.
Once you get your ticket for Jewish Heritage Night with the Philadelphia Soul, sign up for the Major League Dreidel tournament which will be held at 5pm before the game. Test your skills in the "Spinagoguge" - 124 people will compete, first come, first served T-shirts, hats and more to participants.
You are invited to join the Philadelphia Jewish Voice and the Greater Philadelphia Jewish community at the Wells Fargo Center for an exciting, family-friendly evening of arena football as the Philadelphia Soul take on the Pittsburgh Power during the Soul's Jewish Heritage Night, Sunday, June 24 at 6:05 pm. In addition to the non-stop action that arena football brings, the evening will also feature kosher food and Jewish themed entertainment.
Each ticket costs $28.
Ticket prices have been reduced to $19!
Tickets can be used for Jewish Heritage night or for any 2012 Philadelphia Soul regular season home game. A portion of the proceeds will support the Philadelphia Jewish Voice.
Contact publisher@pjvoice.com if you have any questions.
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Ph. D., founded (in 1983) and directs The Shalom Center , a prophetic voice in Jewish, multireligious, and American life that brings Jewish and other spiritual thought and practice to bear on seeking peace, pursuing justice, healing the earth, and celebrating community. He edits and writes for its weekly on-line Shalom Report.
In 1996, Waskow was named by the United Nations a “Wisdom Keeper” among forty religious and intellectual leaders who met in connection with the Habitat II conference in Istanbul. In 2001, he was presented with the Abraham Joshua Heschel Award by the Jewish Peace Fellowship. In 2005, he was named by the Forward, the leading Jewish weekly in America, one of the "Forward Fifty" as a leader of the Jewish community. In 2007, he was named by Newsweek one of the fifty moist influential American rabbis, and was presented with awards and honors by groups as diverse as the Neighborhood Interfaith Movement of Philadelphia and the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation.
Since 1969, Waskow has been one of the leading creators of theory, practice, and institutions for the movement for Jewish renewal.
In order to understand her identity, an Irish Catholic student at the University of Virginia had to follow her passion: a major in Jewish Studies
Editor's note: Anne Grant worked as editorial assistant for the Philadelphia Jewish Voice during the summer of 2011. She had to step down in the Fall when she returned to her studies in Virgina, but she continues to "tweet" for us. (Follow #PJVoice on twitter.) She was a great help, and we are still looking for someone to continue her work for us.
Bonnie Squires is a communications and fundraising consultant who has had experience with universities, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit businesses. She was inducted into the Philadelphia Public Relations Hall of Fame in 2006, and her friend and classmate from Penn, Maury Povich, was the keynote speaker. She is the Board Secretary for the Philadelphia Jewish Voice.
She writes a weekly opinion column in the Main Line Times, the oldest and largest suburban weekly newspaper. She is a photojournalist as well for publications like thePhiladelphia Public Record, and the Los Angeles Jewish Observer. Her op-eds also appear in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News and other news papers in other cities and states.
She is a long-time advocate for social causes like early childhood education, erasing the stigma of mental retardation and mental health, breast cancer research, and other worthwhile causes.
Politics has been a life-long passion of hers, and she has served for decades as a committee person, as well as having run for office.
For several years she hosted a live call-in talk show on radio station WHAT-AM, dedicated to building bridges between African Americans and Caucasians in order to find solutions to society's pressing problems.
She loves both her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, and her adopted school, Temple University, where she worked as a top administrator for many years.
Bonnie and her husband live in an historically certified English Village home in Lower Merion Township.
She was recently inducted into Governor Ed Rendell’s Best 50 Women in Business in Pennsylvania.
Ronit Treatman was born in Israel. She grew up in Israel, Ethiopia and Venezuela. Ronit graduated from the International School of Caracas, fluent in five languages. She served in the Israel Defense forces, where she worked in the Liaison Unit to Foreign Forces. She studied at Hebrew University and Temple University, earning a degree in International Business. She currently lives in the Germantown section of Philadelphia with her husband and three children.
Ronit is the editor of the Kosher Table section of the Philadelphia Jewish Voice. The Kosher Table invites you to explore culinary trends and ingredients, and the way they are intertwined with Jewish history, geography, and traditions. We can meet innovative people who are influencing what we eat and how we consume it. Together, we can travel around the world and experience its diverse Jewish communities, and the native flavors found in their regional culinary specialties. We can discover our local farms, artisanal purveyors, and restaurants. We can investigate cookbooks, and Internet resources by and for people who are passionate about food.
Community members who are fervent about food and love to write are invited to submit articles, comments, questions, and feedback to food @ pjvoice.com
Articles
Her most recent articles can be found at her user page.
Bruce S. Ticker of center city Philadelphia is a former reporter and editor who writes on Israel and other issues for Web sites and newspapers. He holds a day job as a municipal government employee and blogs at http://jewishconcerns.blogspot.com/. He can be contacted at community @ pjvoice.com
A Philadelphia resident, she founded and also serves as Editor-in-Chief of Reclaiming Judaism Press. She travels internationally much of the year as a teacher and student of Torah and Jewish spiritual practices, and in winter serves a four-month rabbi-in-residency for Kol HaNeshamah in Sarasota, Florida. A Covenant Foundation Award finalist for excellence as a Jewish educator, she was dubbed "Reb Goldie" by a Squarer rebbe in the Ukraine while teaching for Project Kesher post-Perestroika. Inventor and original co-anchor and producer of Health Watch for NBC TV 40, she presently teaches Jewish Bioethics and Pastoral Counseling for the Aleph Ordination Programs.
Along her life path thus far Rabbi Milgram has served as a Dean at The Academy for Jewish Religion, a Jewish Federation executive, Hillel director, pulpit rabbi, Jewish newspaper editor, religious school principal, Jewish camping innovator, founder of the nation's third Holocaust archive as well as serving at Princeton University, the 92nd St Y, Esalen, Bard & Gettysburg Colleges, Elat Chayyim, National Havurah Institute, and as a speaker, service, ritual and workshop leader in several hundred cities and many countries. She is presently passionately spearheading the Bar/Bat Mitzvah Institute Initiative, researched under a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, which focuses on creating meaningful and effective ways of preparing students for Bar/Bat Mitzvah. She also heads the Reclaiming Judaism "Living a Mitzvah-Centered Life" initiative in honor of Peninnah Schram.
John Oliver Mason has written for newspapers in the Philadelphia area for over twenty years, covering such events as neighborhood associations, police-community workshops, demonstrations, friends-of-parks groups, and other community activities, writing about neighborhood people making their communities better. He is also a well-known poet.
Dan Loeb is a mathematician, publisher and genealogist. He is the publisher and founder of the Philadelphia Jewish Voice. His genealogy website www.loebtree.com includes about 30,000 individuals with certain branches going back to biblical times. After completing his doctorate in Mathematics at MIT, Dr. Loeb moved to France in 1989 where he taught mathematics and computer science at the University of Bordeaux. He returned to the United States in 1996, where he is now working in statistical arbitrage for Susquehanna International Group.
Dan Loeb is a mathematician, publisher and genealogist. He is the publisher and founder of the Philadelphia Jewish Voice. His genealogy website www.loebtree.comincludes about 30,000 individuals with certain branches going back to biblical times. After completing his doctorate in Mathematics at MIT, Dr. Loeb moved to France in 1989 where he taught mathematics and computer science at the University of Bordeaux. He returned to the United States in 1996, where he is now working in statistical arbitrage for Susquehanna International Group.
The Pennsylvania Newspaper Association recognized the Philadelphia Jewish Voice's achievements in their 2011 Newspaper of the Year Competition. The Philadelphia Jewish Voice was awarded second place in Division VI. As a free online volunteer-based community newspaper, we are proud to have bested competitors which have full-time staff funded by their paid subscribers.
While our competitors can rely on subscription and ad revenue, we depend on the good will and support of our readers. Your tax-deductible donation to the Philadelphia Jewish Voice will give voice to our community.
To pay by credit card or Paypal, click here:
The Philadelphia Jewish Voice's writers conduct extensive research and analysis in order to provide relevant, meaningful content that has engaged and informed our readers since our start in 2005. We are dedicated to addressing the important social, political and cultural issues facing our community in a spirit of honesty, integrity and diversity.
You can also help support the Philadelphia Jewish Voice by advertising your synagogue, school, business or product with us. You can target our numerous readers with inexpensive online ads.
The Philadelphia Jewish Voice is looking to hire an online assistant editor to take our publication to the next level. This is your opportunity to make your voice heard, and to work with a fabulous team of people. For more information, please contact the publisher.
Hannah Lee was born in Hong Kong to a Chinese Buddhist family; her native tongue is Cantonese. She is now a member of the Orthodox Jewish faith. Hannah has earned degrees from Brown and Columbia, with doctoral work at New York University. She lives with her family on the Main Line western suburbs of Philadelphia. Hannah maintains two blogs, A Cultural Mix and HIAS Chronicle, which you can read on her webpage. She can be contacted at: lee@pjvoice.com.
(Anne Grant has been doing a great job as our summer intern, but she is off to Israel next week, and we are in need of a replacement. Please contact us if you or someone you know might be interested. Thanks. - promoted by Publisher)
Do you know a college student, blogger or other talented web designer interested in earning money while contributing to the discussion of issues of interest to our community? The Philadelphia Jewish Voice is taking applications for an online assistant editor.
Applicants should send a letter of motivation and resume to publisher@pjvoice.com. We would also like them to submit a sample piece of writing directly to the website by registering at blog.pjvoice.com and clicking on "Submit Article."
The Philadelphia Jewish Voice is an online non-profit volunteer based community newspaper serving the Philadelphia Jewish Community since 2005. We are dedicated to addressing the important social, political and cultural issues facing our community in a spirit of honesty, integrity and diversity.
The Philadelphia Jewish Voice is an online non-profit volunteer based community newspaper serving the Philadelphia Jewish Community since 2005. We are dedicated to addressing the important social, political and cultural issues facing our community in a spirit of honesty, integrity and diversity.
Your tax-deductible donations will help give Voice to the Greater Philadelphia Jewish Community.
To pay by credit card or paypal, click here:
or send a check to:
Eric Smolen, Treasurer,
The
Philadelphia Jewish Voice,
327 Pembroke Road,
Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004
The Philadelphia Jewish Voice is organized pursuant to
Pennsylvania's non-profit corporation law. We have tax-exempt status under IRS
Code Section 501(c)(3). Contributions are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of
the law.
For more information about the Philadelphia Jewish Voice visit
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